Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me

by Bobby Baker

In 1996 the artist Bobby Baker was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder. Her subsequent struggle to overcome severe mental and later physical illness lasted for 11 years, and was unknown to anyone outside her close family, friends and colleagues. The 158 drawings and watercolours in this book, selected by Bobby from the hundreds more that she created daily as a private way of coming to terms with her experience, are an astonishing record of her slow and harrowing journey to eventual recovery. Moving, startling, shocking and hilarious in turn, these diary drawings reveal the stark realities of living with mental illness and of society's lack of understanding.

With an introductory essay by Marina Warner, and essays by Bobby and by her daughter Dora Whittuck, a qualified clinical psychologist, this book is a rich and rewarding visual experience and a fascinating insight into the interplay between art, mental health and society.

Genres: Mental Health, Nonfiction, Art, Graphic Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 21, 2010

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Gives interesting insight for health professionals !

[Abhishek · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely riveting book which is at once a journal, exhibiting poignancies of the human condition at large, not just of individuals with a particular mental condition alone. It revealed a lot of subtle textures in the nature of problems the artist was suffering from, beyond what the hegemony of psychiatric diagnostic guidelines can offer.

Every individual, whether suffering or not, must take time out to write journals or draw or sing or dance or do something so as to express one's self to oneself, and that is quite cathartic.

[Vanessa Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally absorbing and an amazing look inside someone's head, especially when it's so incongruous with outward appearances (during the time she created these drawings, she was out doing public appearances and the like). Also, interesting to compare treatment in the UK vs. US.

[Row · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book of drawings and insight to someone's personal journey with mental illness.